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Chapter 8

Chapter 8

“You will find that you can’t bargain with your life on your own terms.”

Wendell Berry

As it turned out, Alpha Enzo was a busy man.

While he did whatever it was that scary, ruthless Alphas did in their free time, the men threw us in the dungeon.

And when I say dungeon, I mean it.

It was underground, and although there was very little light, I could make out stone walls and floors. Something damp and musty hung in the air, like this place hadn’t been cleaned since it’d been built.

It probably hadn’t.

However, the scariest part were the cells that lined the walls of the dungeon. There were several of them on each side, and not all of them were empty. I couldn’t see into the cells very well, but I could hear the growls and the whispers of prisoners who’d been here for God knows how long. Some of them tried to mutter things at us, but a loud growl from the blonde man was the only warning they needed.

Suffice to say, I began freaking out almost immediately.

“You don’t need to put us down here,” I pleaded, and this time, I couldn’t even keep the panic out of my voice.

The men escorted us to the end of the hallway, to an empty cell tucked into the back with nothing but the same stone floors, walls, and a small, dirty cot.

“This is where we put all our prisoners until the Alpha is able to speak with them,” the blonde replied flatly. Scarlett went into the cell without protest, although I could tell she was on the verge of a panic attack herself by her shallow breathing.

That made two of us.

“And when will he be able to speak with us?” I asked, but he didn’t bother answering my question.

In the dark, some of the prisoners at this end of the dungeon just looked like hunched over lumps, laying or sitting on the cots of their cells. They didn’t even react when we walked by, like they’d been dumped down here and left to rot.

I didn’t want to be left to rot.

Panic was beginning to claw at my insides – this was not how this was supposed to go. I was supposed to be sitting in my home, snuggled up on the couch and drowning my post-break up sorrows in wine and ice cream.

I was not supposed to be sitting in a werewolf prison cell, surrounded by people who could break my neck with the flick of a wrist. And I was certainly not supposed to be accompanied by a girl who’d been nothing but fiction to me a couple of days ago.

The dark-skinned man gestured for me to follow Scarlett into the cramped cell, but I gripped one of the silver bars. Fortunately, as a human, they wouldn’t hurt me.

“You really don’t need to do this,” I said, “Just let us wait somewhere else for your Alpha, you can even leave guards –”

“You think I’m going to designate guards to watch a rogue and a human?” The blonde man cut me off with a sneer. “You can wait down here with the rest of the prisoners we’ve picked up on our land.”

“And how long will it be till he speaks with us?” I asked again.

The blonde man pried my hand off the silver bars, and shoved me into the cell so hard that I stumbled into Scarlett. With shaky breaths, I watched as he slammed the creaky cell door shut. He locked it with a loud click that echoed off the walls.

Fuck.

There was a cold smirk on his face when he finally looked at me and replied, “Who knows how long it’ll be? You’re not exactly high-priority, you know. Could be two or three months before our Alpha gets to you.”

My stomach dropped.

Well, that’s way worse than I thought.

No way I’m going to survive two or three months down here.

“But then again,” the blonde continued, “Some of these prisoners…well, they don’t make it that long.” He paused to gesture toward the far corner our cell was located in. “Especially when you’re all the way in the back like this. Easy to forget about you.”

Scarlett whimpered.

The blonde leaned in close to the bars, his blue eyes sparking with dark amusement. “Maybe you two should take a closer look,” he taunted, “I might be the last face you see. Ever.”

With that, he shot us another cold smile before turning around to begin his descent out of the dungeon, the other man with him.

My eyes darted around the small, bare cell with panic.

Come on, Elsie. Think.

You need to get back home, and that starts with getting out of this cell.

Just as their footsteps began to echo in the distance, it came to me.

It was a risky move, but right now, it was the only move I had.

“Wait!” I called.

The footsteps stopped, and while I couldn’t see him, I knew the blonde man was waiting for me to speak.

I swallowed. It was now or never.

“We’re not just a lost human and werewolf that stumbled onto your lands by accident,” I said, “We’re here to deliver a message to Alpha Enzo. An urgent one.”

I heard the blonde man scoff. “Do you think I’m stupid, human? You’re not the first prisoner to change their tune when they see their new living conditions for the foreseeable future. I’m not going to waste my Alpha’s time so you can plead for your life.”

He’d already begun walking again, but I wasn’t about to be deterred.

“I’m not lying!” I shouted at him, “I’ve got valuable information for Alpha Enzo…information that could be life or death for him. If he doesn’t hear it, he could die.”

This “life or death” information I was talking about? One of the only other things I remembered from the book: that Alpha Enzo was poisoned by one of his Betas, Beta Cain, before Scarlett defeated him.

And even if that’s unlikely to happen now that I’ve thrown the plot off-course, maybe Alpha Enzo would be willing to grant us our freedom in exchange for the name of the man willing to poison him.

“And what information do you have?” The blonde asked. “If it’s so important, it shouldn’t wait. I’ll pass it along to the Alpha, and he can decide if it’s important enough to earn you a face-to-face meeting.”

Even with all the fear swirling in my gut, I couldn’t resist rolling my eyes at that proposition. “What? So you can get all the credit and then just leave us down here?” I shot back, “No thanks. Besides, this information is too sensitive to go through anybody else but Alpha Enzo.”

When he didn’t look convinced by that, I added, “You can take your chances and assume I’m lying, but do you really want to? If your Alpha finds out that you passed on hearing something that could’ve saved his life, I doubt he’s going to be very happy with you.”

Silence hung in the darkness, and I barely breathed. I knew it was a risky play…but was it risky enough to work?

After several beats, there was a sigh and I recognized the blonde man’s voice as he growled, “I’ll alert Alpha Enzo of your presence as well as this ‘life or death information’ you seem to have.”

My body sagged with relief, and as his footsteps echoed toward the top of the stairs, the blonde called back down, “And if you think I’m scary, human, you haven’t met my Alpha yet. For your sake, I hope your information is just as valuable as you say it is.”

That was the last thing he said before the door at the top of the stairs closed with a resounding thump, leaving Scarlett, me, and the other prisoners alone in our cells.

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